Transcript

Unleash The Demonic Horde-Part One

Revelation 9:1-21
Sunday, November 22, 2015
Pastor Randy Smith

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The book of Revelation that we have in our Bibles was written to show us how the world will come to an end. Since its writing almost 2,000 years ago, people have been fascinated with its intricate details and incredible symbolism.

Yet we must remember that the primary purpose of studying this book is not to divide over the interpretative possibilities. It's not to unlock some secret hidden meaning. It's not even to focus on the specific events themselves. We study Revelation because it is primarily and ultimately a book about God. Among many other things, it reveals to us His perfect holiness and the worship and adoration He receives and His sovereign control over everything. It reveals humans' sinful condition, God's fierce wrath, the salvation He offers in Jesus Christ and the incredible love He has for His children. This book is not about ourselves and the affairs of this world. This book is ultimately about God.

The book of Revelation began in chapter 1 with a declaration of His love for us. "To Him who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood" (Rev. 1:5). It will close in chapters 21 and 22 describing the heavenly home reserved for those who love Him. "And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, 'Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away" (Rev. 21:3-4).

Yet in the middle of Revelation, we have extended explanations of God pouring out His wrath on sinful humanity, on those who refuse to receive His love offering in Christ and persist to rebel against Him by ignoring Him and doing it their own way.

Many people have a problem with the book of Revelation because they have a problem with God's wrath. They wish to jump from chapter 1 to chapter 21! But what they fail to consider is that the God they created in their imagination is not the true God presented the Bible. Far from being the grandfather that sets wimpy rules and then lets the kids get away with murder, God is eternal and sovereign and just and infinitely holy. He will not compromise on who He is or the commandments He has given us which are a direct reflection of His character. He must stand against all rebels with the full weight of all that He is. To do anything less would require the Creator to deny Himself by allowing creation to dictate the rules and be God themselves.

God clearly provides for us the expectations. Yet we all fall short. We call this sin. All sin must be punished. But while there was nothing we could do to save ourselves, He in His love and mercy devised a way for us to be forgiven. He sent His Son to receive the penalty we deserved. Jesus Christ was slain in our place. And the promise is given. When we believe in Jesus Christ our sins can we wiped away and the holiness of Christ given to us. We can then stand in His presence and be shielded from His wrath.

The same will not be the case for those who refuse Christ.

Today as we examine the fifth trumpet of chapter 9, we will see a sliver of God's end time wrath as unbelievers will be subjected to the way He uses demons to fulfill these purposes. We've seen the conventional displays of God's wrath so far - awful consequences through natural means on earth and cataclysmic events from the heavens. Here in chapter 9 we are introduced to one out of the ordinary. By the sovereign hand of God (with trumpets five and six), God uses evil to punish evil.

Let's begin with the first point, the hardness of God's wrath (which is as far as we will get today with this two-part sermon).

1. The Hardness of God's Wrath

On the timeline we are now past the earthly turmoil, the revelation of the antichrist and the persecution of the church. Most believe the church is raptured to heaven by now and those Christians recently converted still on earth are sealed and protected by God. This is the last of the seven seals. The Day of the Lord has arrived. God's wrath is being poured out in the trumpet and bowl judgments. Then Jesus will return and establish His kingdom.

Today we will look at the fifth trumpet and next week the sixth trumpet as God's wrath is poured out through the demonic horde.

The Fifth Trumpet

The fifth trumpet - beginning in verse 1 of chapter 9. "Then the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star from heaven which had fallen to the earth; and the key of the bottomless pit was given to him."

As we have learned in Revelation, the literature is symbolic. And as we have learned the word "star" often refers to an angel. The big question is whether this is a good angel or a bad angel? Good angels in the Bible descend from heaven. Bad angels fall from heaven (like we see here). Let's remember that all angels were created good. But there came a point in time not long after creation that a third of them fell from grace so to speak. We now call them demons. We'll see in 12:4 how the "red dragon" (Satan) with "his tail swept away a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth." Jesus describes the fall of Satan himself in Luke 10:18. "I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning" (cf. Isa. 14:12). Therefore I am led to believe that this is Satan or one of his demonic minions.

To this demonic being verse 1 says "a key to the bottomless pit was given to him."

Remember the scene from Luke 8 when Jesus entered the country of the Gerasenes and confronted the man with many demons? The demons feared Jesus and begged Him "not to command them to go away into the abyss" (Lk. 8:31). You know how the story ends with the pigs, but like there, here in verse 1 we see another reference to the same place. There is an abyss, a "bottomless pit" that serves as a holding tank for demons until the time when they are judged and eventually thrown into the Lake of Fire. The pit is locked, but the verse says a key to the pit is given to this fallen angel by Jesus. Remember Jesus said in 1:18 that He has "the keys of death and of Hades."

There are only two sides - those with Christ and those against Him. Revelation teaches us that Christ and His people will win in the end. This verse is a tremendous picture of how our Lord is in absolute control of evil, epitomized in these demonic beings. He restrains them. He judges them. He even uses them to accomplish His purposes. So whose side do you want to be on? Whose side are you on?

Verse 2 tell us, "He opened the bottomless pit, and smoke went up out of the pit, like the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by the smoke of the pit."

You get the picture? Once the abyss is unlocked, billowing through the shaft first emerges smoke, so much that the sun and air were darkened. The words in this verse are super-charged with judgment - "pit," "smoke," "furnace," "darkened." So judgment is on these demons and now God using these demons to bring judgment on the unbelieving world (Joel 2:10). And the darkness revealed in the pit will be brought upon those who live in spiritual darkness. "God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all" (1 Jn. 1:5). Judgment will be upon those who refuse the light and consciously or unconsciously choose allegiance with Satan, the "prince of darkness" himself.

Verse 3, "Then out of the smoke came locusts upon the earth, and power was given them, as the scorpions of the earth have power."

Again using symbolic language, John does not call these evil demons by their formal name; he refers to them as "locusts." This is an interesting comparison when we consider that word as it is found elsewhere in the Scripture. Locust is always synonymous with destruction.

The literal locust is a ferocious insect. They breed in the desert and then in massive swarms invade and devour cultivated areas for food. It's been said they travel in a column 100 feet high and at times four miles in length. Those in biblical times feared the locusts.

But there is more. As I mentioned last week, these judgments of God in Revelation parallel the 10 plagues God sent on the Egyptians in Exodus.

Moses said to Pharaoh, "For if you refuse to let My people go, behold, tomorrow I will bring locusts into your territory. They shall cover the surface of the land, so that no one will be able to see the land. They will also eat the rest of what has escaped - what is left to you from the hail - and they will eat every tree which sprouts for you out of the field. Then your houses shall be filled and the houses of all your servants and the houses of all the Egyptians, something which neither your fathers nor your grandfathers have seen, from the day that they came upon the earth until this day" (Ex. 10:4-6).

Pharaoh refused to repent. "The locusts came up over all the land of Egypt and settled in all the territory of Egypt; they were very numerous. There had never been so many locusts, nor would there be so many again. For they covered the surface of the whole land, so that the land was darkened; and they ate every plant of the land and all the fruit of the trees that the hail had left. Thus nothing green was left on tree or plant of the field through all the land of Egypt" (Ex. 10:14-15).

Later in the Bible, the prophet Joel warned unrepentant Israel that God will send locusts on the land if they do not turn back to Him. There we read, "What the gnawing locust has left, the swarming locust has eaten; and what the swarming locust has left, the creeping locust has eaten; and what the creeping locust has left, the stripping locust has eaten" (Joel 1:4). And while many take that to refer to literal locusts like we just witnessed with the Egyptians, as you read on in Joel you see a reference in the next chapter to "the Day of the Lord" (Joel. 2:1, 11, 31). These literal locusts foreshadow a greater judgment in the future, the very judgment, I believe, we are also witnessing here in Revelation chapter 9. As a matter of fact, the description of the locusts in Joel chapters 1 and 2 is strikingly similar to the description of the locusts we will shortly see here in Revelation chapter 9.

The next verses are also more evidence that we are not talking about literal locusts in Revelation 9. Literal locusts devour vegetation. These locusts torment people, specifically unbelievers not sealed by God. Believers that will be around are protected from God's wrath in the same way the Israelites were protected from God's wrath when the 10 plagues were delivered on Egypt. They were sealed by the sacrificial blood of the lamb that was to be smeared on their doorposts. That pointed to the blood of Jesus Christ, the blood that would be shed once and for all to make atonement for sin and thus seal us from God's wrath.

Verse 4, "They were told not to hurt the grass of the earth, nor any green thing, nor any tree, but only the men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads."

Verse 5, "And they were not permitted to kill anyone, but to torment for five months; and their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings a man."

John will keep switching his metaphors to make sure we understand the nature of these demonic beings. Though he calls them locusts, yet their type of torment is likened to a scorpion.

Everyone around in the Middle East when this book was written was well familiar with a scorpion (which again is tied to the Exodus - Deut. 8:15), the little lobster-like creature that would pinch you with its claws and then sting you with the poison that was emitted from its tail. This demonic infliction, verse 5 says will happen for five months. That could be literal as five months is the lifespan of a literal locust, but most likely the number is symbolic as are most of the numbers in Revelation.

Verse 6, "And in those days men will seek death and will not find it; they will long to die, and death flees from them."

Based upon the intensity of the pain inflicted upon those who are rejecting God, the agony and desire for death would be understandable. But what's interesting is that despite their desire to die, the verse says, "death flees from them." Suicide does not appear to be an option.

This verse makes many people believe that the infliction is more than just physical. There is a psychological element to it. We are talking about a torment that results in the full gamut of emotional responses: Depression, anger, frustration, apathy, confusion, meaningless and many others that drive men to despair. What do we see here? The spotlight is now shined on the emptiness of life without Christ. The emptiness is often masked by the stuff in this world. The emptiness is realized in divine judgment. The emptiness is fully lived out forever in hell.

One author put it like this, "People without Jesus are desperate to find meaning and dignity and happiness in any number of ways: complex philosophies, a self-indulgent hedonism, the New Age movement with its endless remedies for what ails the human soul, reincarnation, radical feminism, political agendas, homosexuality, drugs, sexual immorality, spirituality, the current angel craze, psychology, materialism, selfism, etc. Demonic 'locusts' lead them into such pursuits, all of which are, at the end of the day, empty and lifeless" (Sam Storms, The Seven Trumpets, Part 2).

Do unbelievers at this point finally realize the futility of their life? That all the things they put their hope in were in vain. That their life was one big waste of time from an eternal perspective as they rebelled against God and refused to submit to Him as Lord and thrust His commands aside as worthless to their own self-prescribed way of thinking? Is the hopelessness of doing it apart from God's way and living apart from a relationship with Him finally being realized? When all the worldly views they adopted and all the celebrities they followed and all the activities they idolized and all the chemicals they depended on, all the stuff that propped them up are once and for all stripped away - do they finally realize that nothing is left to hold them up? Are they coming to the realization of what life without God produces? Are they getting a foretaste of hell? Do they hate life, but rightly fear and know that death for them will now only make it worse? Is that why death flees from them?

What an incredible turn of fates we have seen the past couple weeks. We witnessed the persecution of unbelievers on the church resulting in Christians who willingly laid down their lives rather than deny Jesus Christ. They trusted in the words from Scripture that "to live is Christ and to die is gain" (Phil. 1:21) and that we "desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better" (Phil. 1:23). What incredible hope! Now we get a picture of those who have rejected God and have persecuted His people. They are seen in the opposite predicament - hopeless, facing the wrath of God, hating life and fearing death. For the Christian, life is good here and it's only going to get better. For the unbeliever, life is bad here and it's only going to get worse. How the tables have turned!

Beginning in verse 7 we are given a description of these demonic beings. The repeated use of the words "like" and "likeness" show we should not take these descriptions literally. Also I stand by my interpretation that these are demonic beings and not images of modern military warfare such as battleships and tanks and military personal as some think.

"The appearance of the locusts was like horses prepared for battle [a locust's head looks like a horse]; and on their heads appeared to be crowns like gold [implies invasion and triumph], and their faces were like the faces of men [implies intelligence]. They had hair like the hair of women, and their teeth were like the teeth of lions [fierceness - the same descriptions as Joel 1:6]. They had breastplates like breastplates of iron [they are invulnerable]; and the sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots, of many horses rushing to battle [same as Joel 2:4-5]. They have tails like scorpions, and stings; and in their tails is their power to hurt men for five months" (Rev. 9:7-10).

Verse 11, "They have as king over them, the angel of the abyss; his name in Hebrew is Abaddon ['Destruction'], and in the Greek he has the name Apollyon ['Destroyer']." That is either Satan himself or a high-ranking demonic representative. Many believe it's the same angel we were introduced to in verse 1.

When we finished chapter 8 last week we heard of the eagle flying in midheaven declaring, "Woe, woe, woe to those who dwell on the earth, because of the remaining blasts of the trumpet of the three angels who are about to sound" (Rev. 8:13). We have just finished looking at the fifth of the seven trumpets, the first of these three woes. That means, verse 12, "The first woe is past; behold, two woes are still coming after these things." As God permits we'll continue next week by finishing this chapter and examining the sixth trumpet.